Day C Sun 25th June: Les Houches to Lacs de Chéserys, via Le BréventAscent 2020m / Descent 910m
(2nd day walking, 2nd day of four on Tour du Mont Blanc)
We had rain, thunder ‘n’ lightning during the night, and awoke to cloudy skies & an outer wet tent (Ian hates packing a wet tent, ‘cause of the extra weight.
Me too, ‘cause it takes longer to put the separate inner & outer up. After a long day I just want to get inside.
During our last walk along the South West Coast Path it rained for the first 5 days until I reminded Ian to pay his subscription to the Lucky B*st*rd Weather Club. We had sunshine for 10 days thereafter.
So I politely asked him – “No worries”, he said, “I’ve doubled my subscription – the clouds will lift”. Top man. Money well spent.
Ian said he had been dreaming of this day, possibly the best day on the whole Tour du Mont Blanc, unbelievably, one that most walkers don’t do – Balcony walk to Le Br
évent then on to Lac Blanc & Lacs de Ch
éresys . . Would his dreams come true?
Ian popped into the supermarket to stock up with bananas/bread/cheese & ham as we’d be wild camping up high for the next two nights. He even got me some extra dog food
, though I was dreaming of decent French cheese. Yummy.
Our first (of many
) forest paths . .
These metal steps made it tough for me to climb the rocks.
Ian at the super friendly Refuge de Bellachat.
Ace breakfast stop for me . . I always have breakie a couple of hours after we start . . I hope Ian keeps choosing such great spots.
"Hey, Ian, you are not going to believe this!"
"What’s got your attention away from Mont Blanc, Zen?"
Shocking!
Le Br
évent
Finally, some snow to play in.
Path looking back towards Le Br
évent.
(Ian pull your finger out . . of the way
)
Challenge 1 - Ladders – avoided. Sensibly we took the ski-scarred route towards Plan Plaz, avoiding the ladders via Col du Br
évent. Good choice mate.
Cool spot
Having trekked up over 1500m Ian was feeling pretty chuffed with himself . . . then reality bumped into us, well, rather hundreds of Chamonix marathon & ultra runners.
It took a while to ‘swim against the tide’ of runners but we finally made it to Refuge La
Flégère.Now, me & Ian have a ran a few trial marathons together over the South Downs, so I had a quick glance to see if he was taking a little too much interest. Fortunately, he’d read my mind and said we’d stick to the Downs. Phew!
View back towards Refuge La
Flégère on route to Lac Blanc & Refuge Lac Blanc.We saw lots of these, in pairs & in families all having fun sometimes oblivious to us, sometimes overly curious they’d come to spy on me from above.Finally arrived at Refuge Lac Blanc. I wanted to have a paddle in the Lac. It was so refreshing…Ian kept telling me my ripples ruined his photos. Never mind, we did share an omelette outside the Refuge whilst watching the clouds melt away, before descending to Lacs de Ch
éresys, via the ladders . .
Lac Blanc
Lac Blanc
Challenge 2 – avoid more ladders.
It was easy to find an alternative way down the rocks.
Not my photo, but you get the idea. For us, there was no one about, only a family of Ibex, though I did count eight other tents around Lac de Chéresys -
Magnificent -
Today was majestic, the best ever . . camping high above Chamonix with ibex & spectacular views.
You’ll never guess what Ian said to me . . “This was just a taster . . the main walk, Chamonix – Zermatt starts tomorrow”
Wow . . woof . . wow !
(more to follow, but be patient pls - Day One - Lacs de Ch é resys to Refuge les Grands)